Shrinking Zoo's

[Guest mikesroth]

Hi Everyone,

 

Ok, we are having a Zoo issue in the 29. All of my zoo's (except my wonderful BUB Polyps (Butt Ugly Brown)), seems to be shrinking, or closing up and staying closed. They sorta look like something has been bothering them (like when I crab runs across them), but I don't think any are missing, just closed up. Does anyone have any ideas of what could be making them do this? Everything else seems to be fine, my one mushroom, as large as ever, anthelia is growing fine, the capenalla is about to grow out of my tank.

 

My water parameters seems fine for what I have tested.

Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0

Salinity 1.026, PH eithe 8.2 or 8.4 (sorry doing this from memory)

 

 

Is there something else I should test for? Salitity or PH too High or too Low?

[Lee Stearns]

I have the same problem in my nano cube- Not sure why zoanthids shrink as all else does fine in there- I have one small ric that doesn't do well in there either- but there are mushrooms and another ric that has been thriving for a year- Kind of like putting xenias in my main tank- They melt to nothing over time- but everything else does fine.

Tagging-- any of you experienced guys want to take a guess--

Regards,

Lee

[krish]

someones munching em.

My entire colony of zoos are almost gone.

The Hippo had a snack in the 120.

Moved em to the 42G softies tank to save.

The bi-color angel started the nip. Took em out.

The bi-color taught the lemon peel to nip, who was

a good citizen until the bad one was introduced.

 

So in all, its the munching fish , at least in my case.

-krish

[Guest mikesroth]

I dont think anything is eating them because you can still see the 'nubs' there like when they close up at night. I even have some that are on 'stalks' and the stalks are still there, the heads are just closed up.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

I dont think anything is eating them because you can still see the 'nubs' there like when they close up at night.  I even have some that are on 'stalks' and the stalks are still there, the heads are just closed up.

28100[/snapback]

 

What's your alkalinity at?

[michaelg]

Maybe try a few good water changes as well, and run carbon for a couple weeks? When all else fails this is a good measure to take. I have heard that there exists a zoanthid eating nudibranch, but outside of hearing of its existence, I know nothing about it.

[Guest mikesroth]

I need to test my Calcium and Alk, don't have them in my test kit. Any kits particularly easier/better to test with? I was going to order sailfert, but I noticed some other users on Reefs.org or Reefcentral that recommended other kits for them.

 

I noticed that this had happened with some green zoos that I got at the fragfest, and I had written them off, but they seem to have come back since then, although they aren't really growing much.

[michaelg]

I like salifert a lot. I have used lamotte, but not worth it IMO. From when we tested a bunch a couple years back, all of them gave equivalent readings on alk. calcium was all over the map.

 

Michael

[Guest mikesroth]

How does the Sailfert work? I see the little blurb on Marine Depot's page and it sounds complicated, but that just could be because I dont have the kit in front of me.

 

Right now I use FastTest because I like the plastic chips and think it is pretty easy to compare colors with it. I used to use a different brand (sorry can't remember the name) and always was trying to guess which color the vial looked like compared to a card of colors.

[quazi]

I agree with the chem filtration (carbon, PolyFilter, ChemiPure, PureGen, etc.) approach. I am not sure why zoas would be upset about low Ca or Alk. Yes, I agree these are good parameters to monitor and keep to natural levels, but I have not seen zoas respond to those parameters directly. Of course, they are symptomatic of other general water quality issues.

 

I have zoas that do well, others that do poorly. For the first time in 10 years, I can grow Xenia - I am not sure why. There is a lot of chemical warfare in the reef. Chemical filtration will help moderate inter-specices warfare.

[craby]

In viewing the tanks on the tank tour last year, I noticed a significant difference between the people complaining that they couldn't control the growth of the xenia & zoanthids and the people who complained that these coral shriveled up & died.

1) The people who called the xenia & zoos a weed had a set up mainly for stony corals.

2) The people who had a problem losing xenia & zoos had a set up made for softies (ie: low light, not as coniencious about water parameters & replacing old bulbs, no Kalk & CA reactors).

I am in no way emplying that you need all those things to sustain a healthy colony of xenia & zoos, but mearly noting a difference between the stony & softie tank set ups. Maybe a coincedence, maybe not.

 

I also would like to note that some people feed their zoos directly with something called "Spectra Vital & Black Powder" which I believe to be a supplimental nutient base food to compensate for the conditions of natural oceanic water conditions. Although these suppliments may make your zoos grow, IMO it is a maintenance issue to direct feed an organism to give it what it is lacking from the natural environment.

 

I have tried both supplements & upgrading & have to admit IME a better response by the zoos to the better lighting & addition of reactors than to direct feeding supplement nutrients. (ie: no growth w/ suppliments & the first noticeable growth in 2 years w/ changing set up to mainly sps setup).

 

People who have experienced different observations, please chime in.

[OUsnakebyte]

I use to be able to keep xenia just fine under pc's, but never really experienced any significant growth - just the xenia doing their "walking thing" trying to get closer to the light. They also pulsed, but not a whole lot.

 

When I switched to MH over a year and a half ago, I noticed an explosion in both the growth and pulse rate of my xenia. The difference was amazing....

 

I only started keeping zoanthids after I made the switch, so I have no comparison there. But, I do grow them like they are going out of style....

 

 

However, I do have the 5.5 nano here on my desk that has no fish, two different flavors of green sinularia, few shrooms, yellow polyps, and some macro algae. I also have two colonies of zoanthids - one green, one orange. The tank is lit by 2x13 watt pc (one actinic, one 10,000K). I'm pretty sure the bulbs need replacing.

 

As of late (past 1-2 months), my zoanthids have not opened up much at all in the nano. A few select ones here and there will open, but not like they do at home. Everything else seems fine. Not sure if it is light related (or any other parameter for that matter...) but figured I'd share...

 

Cheers

Mike

[Guest mightymouse]

check very closely for small nudibranches some people have nudibranches ontheir zoo colonies and they eat the zoos and they will cause your zoos to stay closed alot if you do have them search on rc and uw ill find a few ways to get rid of them but hope u dont haev these they are a PITA to get rid of from what ive read good luck and keep us updated